Romance of the Elemental Nations
by foolsmate
Summary: For now the system of hidden villages is kept in a delicate balance between the Five Great Shinobi Countries. Yet ambitions stir and deals are made. A fourth Shinobi World War is coming. The time approaches where any man may grasp power and glory, if only he is willing to take it. What will become of Naruto, warlord, hero, tyrant or destined to fade into obscurity? NarutoxFemHaku
1. Chapter 1

Romance of the Elemental Nations

The early morning air was pierced by the sounds of marching feet. Twenty four prospective ninja moved into formation upon the muster field. It was a square of dirt, packed hard by years of military drills, situated in front of the central building of the Academy. Waiting for them stood a chünin instructor dressed in the standard issue type C flak jacket. Once the students settled the instructor began roll, referring to the clipboard he held in his hands.

One of the students could barely hold still, his feet scratching at the grit beneath his feet as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Uzumaki, Naruto!"

As his name was called the student snapped to attention

"Present!"

His name was last on the list. Concluding the roll the instructor tucked the clip board under his arm and scanned the students before him. Then, he spoke.

"Welcome to the first day of the Genin exams. I would like to take this time to congratulate you all on making it this far. For those that successfully conclude these exams, I will be proud to welcome you into the ranks of Konoha's Special Forces. You will be held to a higher standard than the General Forces. You will be the elite. You will be expected to excel in the shinobi arts. You will be the tip of the spear, the face of the hammer, the dagger in the dark, and most importantly the apex of the shield on which our enemies will break like harmless water. Good luck to you all."

At the conclusion of the speech another Chünin arrived and directed the students to the rear of the training camp where the obstacle course was. The twenty four students broke into a double column with practiced ease and started moving at an easy cadence. During the march there Naruto stole furtive glances towards the girl in formation next to him. The sight of her pink hair flapping in the wind brought a smile to his face, one that he tried to hide. Unfortunately the girl noticed and gave him a swift kick in the back of the leg as they ran. With a grimace she turned back to face forward, only to break into a smile of her own as she spied a raven haired male leading the column.

Ignoring the pain Naruto turned his head to see recruits for the General Forces practicing taijutsu drills in the fields to his left. A platoon divided into five squads of eight dotted the grass surface, each member pairing off with another to perform a basic kunai disarm. Naruto had spent two years in training for the General Forces before the Hokage had provided him with a commission into the Special Forces Academy. As such he was among his age-mates despite having started his ninja training two years earlier than his cohort. It failed to be an advantage though as the majority of his class were children of shinobi clans who had begun training at a far earlier age.

With a steely glint to his eyes Naruto turned face forward. At the age of sixteen he was finally on the cusp of entering the ninja forces, not only as a Genin but as part of the elite who worked in independent four man cells. Not only was the pay better, but promotion came much faster (and attrition tended to be higher, perhaps related).

Finally reaching the obstacle course the group came to a halt.

"Welcome to the obstacle course."

A Chünin greeted them.

"Here we will be assessing your ability to navigate a variety of obstacles and terrain types. We expect speed, agility, stamina and technique. You each will be issued type A equipment. You are only allowed to use each item once. You will have a total of eight minutes maximum to complete the course. A total of twenty five simulated targets will be placed at strategic locations. You will be deducted five points for each target you fail to hit. All targets must be taken out with a ninja tool. You will also be deducted 5 points for every thirty seconds that elapse beyond three minutes. You will begin with one hundred points. A score of zero or a time exceeding eight minutes will immediately disqualify you from the Genin exam. Am I understood?"

A single unified yell came in response

"Hai!"

The examiner continued

"You will be given thirty seconds at the beginning of the course to examine and organise your equipment. Now, would Uchiha Sasuke report to the starting line."

The raven haired teen stepped up to the wooden posts that marked the start of the obstacle course and several pouches were placed in front of him. As a bell was struck by the Chünin Sasuke quickly examined the contents of the pouches before strapping the pouches onto various parts of his body. Another bell rung and he was off.

"Hey, hey Sakura," said Naruto "Any idea what's in those pouches?"

"Naruto….you idiot," the pink haired girl replied "the examiner told us it was type A equipment."

Naruto scrunched up his face and scratched the back of his head

"What's in type A equipment?"

Sakura gave him a withering look and smacked him upside the back of his head

"You should've read the requisition handbook then you idiot! I'm not telling you so stop talking to me."

With an indignant huff Sakura walked away from Naruto, leaving him to wonder what exactly a requisition handbook was and when they were issued.

* * *

Eventually it came to Naruto's turn. He stepped up to the line and again a series of pouches were laid in front of him. There were four in all. The bell rang and Naruto grabbed the pouches and looked inside them. The first held five shuriken, the second held a brace of eight kunai, the third contained three explosive tags, two flash bombs and a length of ninja wire. Naruto, however, had spent too long counting and noting the equipment in the first three pouches and the bell sounded again before he had a chance to even pick up the fourth pouch. Clearing it from his mind Naruto dashed towards the first obstacle. It was a moat with several wooden poles sticking out of the water. He decided to go for the quicker option, water walking. As soon as he placed his first foot onto the surface

Boom

An explosion of water blew him back onto the bank of the moat, soaking wet. He realised there were explosive tags anchored to the bottom of the moat which were set off by the chakra emitted from his feet. With a growl Naruto quickly got off his back, now covered in mud, and dived into the water and began to swim overarm to the other side. As he was pulling himself out of the moat on the other side a Chünin observer shook his head and made a note on his clipboard.

So far a minute and a half had elapsed for Naruto. The next obstacle turned out to be a wall made of wooden planks, painted to resemble the granite walls of a castle. Wasting no time Naruto fished out an explosive tag, wrapped it around a kunai, and let it fly towards the wall. The explosive shockwave reached Naruto just after the sound did, peppering him with splinters and chunks of wood that went ignored as he rushed through the smoke. He popped out the other side and was confronted by 5 dummies in a circular array. He flicked a shuriken at each of them, hitting all of them as he dashed past.

He was next confronted by a tall square tower that stood roughly fifteen meters in height. It was solid oak and had one tiny window per floor on the side opposite to Naruto's approach. The hot box, as it was known due to the extreme heat inside it during summer drills, was used to practice breach entries and room clearing. Naruto quickly ran up its side and reached the top. The opposite lip of the tower had a railing with small metal rings embedded at regular intervals. Ignoring them Naruto pulled out another exploding tag and slapped it onto the roof of the tower. Another explosion rocked the obstacle course and Naruto, who had escaped the explosion by hanging off the side of the tower, hoisted himself up and dropped down into a room filled with another five dummies sat around a table. Again quickly filling the dummies with a kunai each, Naruto exited out the window and ran down the wall until he reached the ground.

The final obstacle consisted of a patch of simulated forest over a long pit of sharpened stakes. Naruto quickly leapt up onto the first branch and spied a cluster of five dummies in the stakes below. He took them out with his last remaining explosive tag wrapped around the handle of one of his kunai.

As he burst out the other side of the simulated forest a groan escaped his lips as he spotted the remaining ten targets.

"Damn it, I completely forgot!"

Throwing his last two kunai Naruto netted two more targets before he continued to the finish line.

* * *

Naruto was met at the finish line by Iruka, his class instructor. As Naruto caught his breath, Iruka spoke with five other chünin who had arrived shortly after him. After conferring with them for a few minutes and making some notes on his clipboard, Iruka approached and began to speak.

"Well Naruto, you made excellent time even though your approach was…let's say unique. It took you five minutes and twelve seconds. Unfortunately you failed to plan ahead, "as usual" thought the chünin, failed to efficiently utilise your equipment, and even failed to remember the fourth pouch! and because of that you ended up missing the last eight targets...sigh... all up you scored forty for this section Naruto…"


	2. Chapter 2

Tsuzumi Sarugaku, chünin of Konoha, dragged a hand through his hair. He struggled to hold his eyes open, trying to pierce the early morning mist that clung to the trees around him. His vest was bloody and battered, the steel mesh peeking out from numerous rips and tears. It was quiet. The sounds typical of an early morning, bird song and the rustle of rousing animals, were completely absent.

Tsuzumi could only hear his own ragged breath as he tightened the tourniquet tied to his left leg. A grunt of pain escaped his lips and tears formed in the corners of his eyes. He was the last of his platoon.

Four figures, silhouettes blurred by the fog, entered the small clearing in which Tsuzumi had been recuperating.

"So here is the last little tree rat." One of them said "What's that matter little leaf-nin?"

"He's crying like a little bitch for his mother." Another offered.

"Fuck you." Said Tsuzumi, and he spat a bloody gob of spit at the group.

"Oh? Seems there's a little life in him yet." The third figure said

With a laugh the figure stepped forward, revealing his pasty white face. With a smile he stepped on Tsuzumi's left leg, digging his toes into the gaping wound that marred the man's thigh. Tsuzumi cried out in pain.

The final member of the quartet finally spoke up

"Stop fucking with him and just slit his throat. We don't have time for this."

The member who had been stepping on Tsuzumi's leg turned to reply

"You always gotta ruin my fun Tayuya."

"Don't use our names you fucking moron."

"Tayuya, language!" the largest of the four said.

"Shut up fat ass."

The pale ninja chuckled and turned back to Tsuzumi.

"Like it matters… Anyway little leaf-nin, you should have never set foot in the land of sound."

* * *

Naruto was currently undertaking the third stage of the genin exams. The second had been assessing taijutsu, the ninja art it which Naruto was most capable. He had scored a respectable eighty out of a possible one hundred.

As of now Naruto was standing in a large pit, several dozen meters in diameter, where the ninjutsu portion of the exams was being administered. In the centre of the pit, a fifteen by fifteen grid of thick wooden posts, taller than a man, had been placed with a meter between each post. Three judges, including Iruka, were standing on top of the posts.

"Naruto," Iruka said "For this test you are to perform the three academy ninjutsu only. No tai or genjutsu is permitted. No ninja tools are permitted. There will be no equipment provided to you either. My fellow judge, Mizuki, will pursue and attempt to capture you within these posts. You are to use the three academy ninjutsu to avoid him. You will not be permitted outside or above the grid for the duration of the exam. I and the other judge will be observing from on top of the posts. We will be assessing execution as well as how judicious you are in the use of your techniques. The exam duration will be again eight minutes…..now did you get all that?"

"Hey I was paying attention this time!" Naruto said

"All right Naruto" Iruka said with a smile "Go wait inside the grid. A bell will sound at the start and at the end."

With a nod Naruto scampered off to the centre of the grid and waited. Outside Mizuki held his face in his hand and let out a deeps sigh.

"Why did it have to be the demon container…." He thought

"You drew the short straw Mizuki, so man up and get in there." The third examiner said "And hey, if you piss him off enough he releases the demon I'll take good care of your girlfriend for you."

"If the demon gets out there won't even be a village, nevertheless my girlfriend…"

Mumbling curse words under his breath Mizuki moved towards the forest of wooden posts as the bell rang out, signifying the start of the exam.

Naruto's ears twitched as he heard the sounds of Mizuki's footsteps. The arrangement of the posts made it difficult to pinpoint the direction but they were clearly getting louder. Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath before his hands flashed into a series of seals.

Ram, Tiger, Snake.

His hands were a blur. This particular sequence of seals had been practiced long into the night, over and over again.

A huge gout of smoke erupted from Naruto's left and a blurry, ill-defined, Naruto shaped object appeared. As soon as it did a kunai, thrown with exaggerated slowness pass straight through it. As the smoke cleared Mizuki was standing right at the epicentre of the cloud of smoke. Naruto was nowhere to be seen.

"He still can't perform a proper clone because of the size of his reserves….but using the huge amount of smoke to cover his retreat…sneaky as always Uzumaki."

Naruto was currently hiding, his back pressed to one of the posts, a few meters from Mizuki's position. He was gritting his teeth with his fists clenched tight.

"That damn clone technique!"

With a grunt he started running towards the edge of the grid when suddenly Mizuki turned the corner ahead of him. Again, with exaggerated slowness, Mizuki threw a kunai at Naruto. With plenty of time Naruto formed another set of seals.

Ram, Boar, Ox, Dog, Snake.

The kunai pierced straight into Naruto's chest.

"Shit… I better not have…"

Mizuki's thought was interrupted by a poof of smoke that revealed a log in Naruto's place with the kunai embedded in the middle. With a sigh of relief Mizuki continued to move between the posts, making a half-hearted attempt to find Naruto.

It had only been a few minutes but Naruto was fully fed up with this exam. With his failure to pull off a proper clone technique he knew his chances of passing were slim. A slow smile spread across his face. The only technique left was the transformation technique….

Mizuki was still wandering between the posts, a kunai gripped in his hand. His eyes scanned between the posts looking for any tell-tale signs of Naruto or a transformation. Soon he came back to the spot where the log from Naruto's body replacement technique was lying. As he slowly stepped past the log he jumped in surprise and whirled around, weapon at the ready. He wasn't ready, however, for what he saw come out of the cloud of smoke.

An impossibly buxom blond in nothing but her birthday suit burst out from the cloud and threw her arms around Mizuki.

"Genjustu?" was Mizuki's final thought before he passed out and slumped to the ground.

When Mizuki came to, Naruto had already been told he had lost a lot of marks due to his failure to produce an effective clone. He was, however, commended on his imaginative use of the excess chakra smoke before he left.

Mizuki let out a long sigh and deigned not to get up from his spot on the ground.

"What was that Mizuki?" Iruka asked "I think I've seen civvies throw harder."

"Not going to comment on how he knocked me out?"

"Everyone's fallen for that at least once…." The chünin replied with a small blush to his face.

"Well I wasn't going to risk killing the damn kid was I? Kid goes down, seal breaks, and suddenly we got a gigantic fox demon incinerating Konoha. That or I make him dislike me enough that when he does go fucking nuts he comes for me first. Nuh-uh, no thanks, not chünin Mizuki, I'm not that dumb."

"You know that wouldn't really happen…"

"Do I Iruka? Do I? Who knows how that seal works. You a fuinjutsu master Iruka? For all we know one day we'll wake up in fox shit with all the people Naruto hates right at the bottom."


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto had passed the Genin examinations by the skin of his teeth. As it was, he had cemented his position as the dead last in class. Still he had passed. With a bright grin on his face, Naruto was making his way down to the grocery store. Tonight, he would treat himself to some home-made ramen. It could never compete with Ichiraku's of course, but he was practiced at cooking for himself.

The store itself was fairly simple and typical of Konoha. The store front was had a large opening with a series of large sliding doors. The whole thing was built out of the same coffee coloured wood as most of the buildings in the city. With a cheerful jaunt Naruto entered the store.

"Hey ossan, how's it going?"

The small man sitting behind the register jumped at the boisterous greeting.

"Ah Naruto... You're here!.."

You could see the sheen of sweat starting to form on his forehead.

"Of course! I don't buy my groceries from anyone else you know…Hey are you feeling okay ossan?"

With a nervous grin and a wave of his hand the man replied.

"Oh it's just a bit hot today that's all. Haha…ha.."

"Well if you say so…"

The look of consternation soon passed from Naruto's face and he started to dig into his pockets for his wallet. Like usual the grocery store owner had already prepared several bags filled with the items Naruto usually purchased. Soon enough, Naruto had passed the money over, grabbed the bags, and started heading home.

As soon as Naruto had left the store the owner slumped in his seat and let out a deep sigh. Twenty three seconds, that was how long Naruto had been in his store.

As Naruto walked along the road towards his home he didn't note how the people would cross to the other side, trying their best to look anywhere but at him. He had stopped bothering. If they did find themselves making eye contact they would give their best forced smile and a little courteous nod before quickly moving on. Every time this happened Naruto would smile back and his steps would quicken just that little more.

His apartment was one among the one of the many in the shinobi housing blocks. They were long two story buildings, made of that same coffee coloured wood, grouped into ten on the western side of town. There were several of these complexes throughout Konoha that housed its many shinobi. Naruto's particular block, block F, was reserved for students of the various shinobi schools. Each floor held ten apartments, meaning each complex housed roughly two hundred shinobi of various ranks and affiliations.

The entrance through the wall surrounding the block was guarded at all times by a genin. Naruto showed the man his military I.D and was waved through. They never spoke. Naruto had been living in this particular block since he had been eight and the guard had been there just as long yet Naruto didn't know his name. The guard was old, for a ninja at least. His face was heavily scarred and his left sleeve was empty and pinned up onto the shoulder of his flak vest. To be fair, the guard barely spoke to anyone, communicating in a series of grunts and the occasional growl more often than with words.

Passing the small guard box Naruto squared his shoulders. Tomorrow would be his first day as a genin.

* * *

A message had been left for Naruto in his mail box the day before. An official letter with the Konoha symbol proudly emblazed at the head of the card. It stated that he should report to training ground seven at oh seven hundred to meet with his team. He was assigned to team seven along with Sakura Haruno and Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto had let out a happy yell that faded into one of frustration as his eyes made their way down the letter.

Now, he was currently standing with his two teammates in front of their commanding officer and jounin instructor. Naruto had balked when he saw who their instructor was. He hadn't read any further than the names of his team mates.

"I'm Hatake Kakashi, your jounin instructor."

Naruto stood there in a daze, wondering if this was really happening. Hatake Kakashi, the infamous copy ninja himself. Even Sasuke was staring straight at the man and providing him with his utmost attention. Sakura just stood there fuming as it was already oh nine hundred.

The three of them, however, started to get uneasy as the jounin continued to stand there, just staring at them with his one visible eye upturned in a smile. After a few more awkward moments the discomfort finally overtook Sakura.

"I'm Sakura Haruno! Genin 22803097. My interests lie in medical jutsu and taijutsu. "

Taking the hint the two others followed along the same vein

"Uchiha Sasuke. Genin 12307097. My only interest is in gaining strength…"

"Uzumaki Naruto. Genin 11010097. I like ninjutsu and ramen and I'm going to be the Hokage! Oh yeah I like Iruka sensei as well. And gardening."

Naruto finished off with a grin before rubbing the back of his head. Sakura could only bow her head and put a palm to her face. Sasuke just gave a grunt, keeping his eye on Kakashi the entire time. With the introductions finished Kakashi spoke up,

"So before you three become official genin I'm supposed to give you a final assessment. If I don't like what I see you three will be going back to the academy."

Sakura just nodded her head. She had memorised recruiting guidelines when she found out her parents had secured her commission in the Special Forces. The only emotion that crossed Sasuke's face was a small lifting of the eyebrows.

"What?!" Naruto yelled "I thought we were already genin! We even passed that stupid exam!"

"That was to root out the hopeless ones." Kakashi explained.

"Don't you read anything Naruto?" Sakura continued.

At this point Sasuke deigned to finally speak.

"Tch. Dobe."

As Naruto continued to fume Kakashi gave his final orders.

"Go to the requisitions office and collect your flak, along with type D equipment. Meet me at the mission hall tomorrow at oh seven hundred, dismissed."

Then, he vanished in a swirl of leaves.

The next day team seven, minus their jounin instructor, were waiting outside the mission hall. They each wore the standard issue type C flak jackets and the standard Konoha shinobi uniform consisting of blue trousers bandaged at the ankle with a long sleeved blue shirt, and blue shinobi sandals. The blue colour of the clothing and the green of the flak vest were specifically chosen to blend in at night. Straight black often stood out in the moonlight far more than deep blues and greens, particularly in heavily forest areas such as the Land of Fire.

It wasn't long before Kakashi finally appeared. He was already holding a mission scroll.

"Hello my cute little students, I have a mission for us. I'll be observing you three for its duration and at the end I'll be making my decision."

The three academy students nodded.

"Now this is a simple D rank mission. A landowner in the south east of fire country has hired us to sabotage a dam built by his neighbour. The dam is blocking a river that flows onto his land and provides his crops with water. No water, no crops. Do you have all your equipment?"

The three academy students, again, nodded and pointed at the rucksacks at their feet.

"Good. I'll brief you more once were closer to the target."


	4. Chapter 4

The rain fell hard and fast, creating a deafening noise as it smacked into the ground and the rooves of the surrounding buildings. There was no light save a solitary lantern hung on a wall to the side of a large red gate stamped with the three line symbol of rivers. The light was muffled by the heavy downpour, revealing four figures cloaked in waxed straw and wide brim hats. Their faces were hidden under the shadow of their hats and the ends of their cloaks were coated in a dark, thick mud. Each carried with them a dagger with a handle that came to a tapered point, a style which was popular in this region.

The quartet approached the door and gave each other a nod. As one of them raised their hand to knock, he turned to face the others.

"Remember, fire and earth. Nothing else."

He knocked three times, slamming his fist into the wood. After a few moments the sound of wood and metal sliding into place could be heard. With the last bang of a bolt falling into place the door opened and the face of a man wielding a spear, with a lantern hanging from it, peered out from the gap.

Before the guard could utter a word the gate was pushed in and the four rushed inside. The first to enter, the knocker, smashed the spear from the guards grasp and twisted the guards arm up behind his back. His other hand, knife glinting in the yellow light, brought the blade up to slip between the ribs and right into the heart. Three more stabs quickly followed, each finding its way to the three other quadrants of the heart. The guard slumped to the ground.

The intruders continued to run, quickly crossing the courtyard behind the gate, moving towards the large building that dominated the centre of the walled off compound. They soon reached the door and entered. Immediately two split off to the corridors to the left and right, and began to form hand seals. Alarm bells began to ring. As soon as the two finished their string of hand seals they slammed their hands to the floor. An earth wall shot up to block off those two corridors. Yells and the impact of weapons could be heard through the thick walls. This accomplished the two quickened their running to catch up with the other two, who were now halfway up the stairs that ran directly opposite to the entryway.

The quartet burst into a large chamber and came to a standstill. The room was lined on each side by wooden pillars accompanied by standing braziers with flames flickering to and fro. Twelve men stood at the opposite end, about thirty meters distant. Behind the group of samurai was their target. An aging man, his hair grey, dressed in fine green silks that hung off his skinny frame. Each of his soft wrinkled fingers displayed a fat gold ring that glistened with precious stones. With the soft clicks of his rings coming into contact with each other the man pointed his finger at the four intruders.

"Kill them!"

The samurai let out a battle cry, lifting their swords above their heads as they charged down the centre of the room. Three of the four intruders backed away from the last member and spread out to the sides. The one who remained still starting forming hand seals. The rumbling thunder of twelve men in armour running over the wooden floorboards went completely ignored. It was a race. The lead samurai, the captain, called out.

"Get the one making hand seals!"

When the captain reached three sword lengths from the ninja he leapt into the air intent on cleaving the assassin in two. As he reached the apex of his jump the ninja's hands came to a sudden stop.

A huge gout of fire exploded from the ninja's mouth. The captain could feel his armour melting under the heat. He fell to the floor grasping at his torso as the super-heated metal scourged his skin. The fire and the heat from his armour ignited his clothing and they too burned with the rest of him. The skin of his face was charred and cracking and his hair had completely ceased to exist. Those lucky enough not to be caught directly in the fire blast fell to their knees, hacking and coughing, as the super-heated air from the stream of fire had cooked the inside of their lungs and nasal passages. They began to slowly choke as the walls of their lungs began to swell and the remaining space filled with fluid. Perhaps they were not so lucky.

With cries of agony and desperate bids to catch breath filling the room the four approached their target. They pushed him to the ground as he begged for mercy, for his life. One of them bent over and whispered in his ear.

"Your life will not go wasted."

Any confusion or questions he might have had failed to show past the gibbering mess of tears and snot his face had become. Then, the assassins started to stab him and stab him and stab him again until he was rendered into a pile of meat.

They left their daggers point down in his corpse and left.

* * *

Hundreds of kilometres away team 7 were finally drawing near to their destination and had stopped for the night. As the three genin hopefuls made camp they eyed Kakashi who was just sitting on a fallen tree, reading a little orange book. Once they had finished setting up the small tents and Naruto had finished digging a small latrine Kakashi had closed his book and put it away.

"Okay, briefing time! The provisional team 7, that's us, has been assigned a sabotage mission. Now this is a D-rank mission. Can somebody explain the implications of that?"

Sakura's hand shot right up before Kakashi had even finished speaking.

"You don't have to put your hand up Sakura. This isn't the academy anymore."

With a blush Sakura gave her explanation.

"D-rank missions are the lowest ranked missions. They have little to no chance of contact with enemy shinobi and at most only non-shinobi combatants. They are usually performed by new genin squads with their jounin instructor or a more experienced squad led by a chünin."

"That's a very good explanation" Kakashi said with a smile.

Sakura beamed but quickly schooled her features.

"You forgot one thing though" Kakashi continued.

Sasuke spoke up. "D-rank missions are unimportant."

"What Sasuke means to say is that D-rank missions are never politically or militarily sensitive." Kakashi finished.

"Now, I'll give you some further details on the mission. We've been hired by Tazuna-san, a landowner, who produces cotton in a large plantation about two days travel south east of Otafuku Gai. One of the neighbouring properties, which the river runs through, has decided to build a dam across the river that feeds water to Tazuna-san's crops. The neighbour is another cotton farmer who has some friends in the local government."

"So that's why we're here" Naruto said "The bastards who are supposed to deal with this stuff are looking the other way!"

"That's right Naruto." Kakashi replied "Now cotton is a very water hungry plant so we only have a short timeframe in which to complete this mission or the client will be losing a lot of money and very unhappy with Konoha."

"How long Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.

"About two more days but it shouldn't take us longer than one."

"Don't you think the other guy will hire ninja too?" Naruto said

Sasuke perked up at the possibility of some worthwhile enemies but he soon turned away with a frown and stared into the distance as Kakashi continued to explain.

"It's very unlikely for foreign shinobi to be operating so deep in the Land of Fire, particularly for a small mission like this and Konoha hasn't received a mission request from the neighbour. We wouldn't even accept one at this point. So we're unlikely to have much opposition. So we get in, scope out the dam then blow it up and go home. Easy."

Sakura nodded and broke out into a smile before cheerfully throwing some more wood onto the fire. Sasuke continued to ignore the world around him as he became swallowed up in his own thoughts. Naruto though, was thinking.

"But Kakashi-sensei, what about missing-nin?"


	5. Chapter 5

Team seven were currently hidden in the thick underbrush. Just ahead of them the forest came to an abrupt stop. This was because the dam, just two hundred meters away, was made of wood from the local area leaving its immediate surroundings devoid of any trees. Only the wooden stumps remained.

The team had observed the site from atop a ridge a kilometre back and had decided on their plan of attack. It was simple. They would wait for dusk, so the civilian maintenance workers would vacate the area, before simply walking up to the dam and blowing it sky high with explosive tags. There seemed to be no guards of any kind and being a wooden dam it wouldn't take much effort to topple.

With the sun nearly hidden beneath the horizon team seven started to make their way through the field of tree stumps.

Suddenly coming to a halt Kakashi signalled with his hands.

"Defensive formations. Now."

The team quickly fell into step, covering each other's angles. Kakashi had sensed a spike of chakra yet nothing had occurred. That was until team seven looked to the top of the dam. A great roiling bank of mist was cascading down from the lip of the dam, rushing in a great wave towards team seven. With a deafening gush the mist settled on top of them.

Each member of the team scanned their immediate surroundings, trying to pierce the thick mist with their sight. Sakura had her kunai out at the ready. Her stance was stiff. The slight shaking of her hands betrayed the tension that was running through her limbs. A hand gripped her shoulder. Spinning around she almost stabbed her blade into Naruto who just stared at the tip of the kunai that had almost impaled him through the eye. Sakura's wrist was trapped in the firm grip of Sasuke who gave her a questioning raise of his brow. Naruto broke the silence.

"uhh... Sakura… Kakashi wants us to retreat to the tree line on his signal."

Taking her kunai back Sakura nodded and pursed her lips.

Suddenly, a huge gale of wind came ripping through the clearing, dispersing the mist.

A fifth person was revealed. Dressed in camouflage and bandages, one thing in particular stood out about this individual. A cleaver, almost two meters in length, rested across his shoulders.

The three academy students, digesting what they saw, turned pale and quickly dashed towards the trees

"I goddamn told you!" Naruto said "Missing-fucking-nin!"

"Shut the hell up Naruto." Sakura yelled.

"Not now you two." Sasuke added

Just as their conversation ended the three could hear the clanging of steel on steel. Glancing back Naruto saw Kakashi engaging the missing-nin.

"We have to help sensei!" he said

"He told us to get to the tree line and that's what we're doing." Sakura replied.

The mist that had been beaten back by Kakashi's technique came rushing back in to fill the clearing as the three made it to the trees. Taking position in the branches the three gave each other a look. They couldn't see what was happening at all. Narutos grip on his branch began to strip the bark as he heard the sounds of battle echoing through the mist.

Sasuke gave him a pointed look.

"There's nothing we can do Naruto. We will stay here until we are sure of our course of action. Understand?"

"Who the hell made you boss bastard?" Naruto spat back.

Sasuke grabbed Naruto by his clothes and spoke right into his face "If we rush in there we will die. How will you become Hokage then Naruto? I fully intend on fulfilling my ambitions and they don't include being killed here!"

As Sasuke let him go Naruto punched the tree beside him with a yell. Sakura let out a sigh of relief. Unknown to the both Sasuke himself was gritting his teeth as he stared out into the opaque mist. His Sharingan had been useless at seeing through the chakra laden technique. He was still too weak.

* * *

Kakashi blocked a flurry of strike from Zabuza, constantly having to discard kunai as they warped or cracked under the weight of Zabuza's blade. He was down to his last three. Annoyingly, each time Kakashi attempted to bring his hands together for a technique Zabuza would come flying from the mist.

The visibility for Kakashi was roughly five meters. Barely a second existed between Zabuza appearing at the edge of his visible range and the huge cleaver coming in for a strike. The legendary weapons length was perfect for Zabuza's preferred type of combat. Kakashi knew his position was untenable with it only being a matter of time before he ran out of kunai or chakra for his sharingan. He had to put a stop to these hit and run tactics.

The next strike came from his left, the cleaver arcing through the mist on a trajectory for his left shoulder. Instead of using both hands and kunai to block the blow he intercepted the cleaver with only his left. His right hand slipped into a pouch on his back. As the blow blew past him and through his weakened guard, Kakashi was afforded just enough time by his now broken kunai to twist his body. The killing blow was reduced to a large gash across his shoulder. Thankfully, due to the angle of attack, the sword had mainly bit into his collar bone, rather than severing the rotator cuff muscles around his shoulder. Again Zabuza disappeared into the mist.

Ignoring the pain Kakashi brought his hands together in front of him, inviting another attack. Predictably it came. As the huge blade shot out of the mist, thrusting at his left side, Kakashi span counter-clockwise bringing his right hand forward. A split second later his palm slapped into the side of Zabuza's sword, pushing it off course. Even then the tip of the sword shredded one of the jounin's breast pockets, tearing it off the front of his flak vest as is passed. Moments later a dull flame began to glow through the mist accompanied by the low hiss of ignition.

With the time he had bought Kakashi quickly started a string of hand seals, culminating in another great blast of wind blowing through the clearing. The mist once again receded, its movement punctuated by the pressure wave of an explosion. This time, as the mist cleared, it revealed a bleeding, snarling Zabuza. His blade sat imbedded in a nearby tree stump, it side blackened by the blast. Zabuza had barely managed to discard it, earning him several cuts from the shrapnel.

With only a few more seconds before the mist descended Kakashi made use of the temporary visibility by using a body flicker towards the tree line and the three students.

"You three, rendezvous at checkpoint Iroha."

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura just stared blankly.

"NOW!"

Not looking to see whether the three had followed his orders Kakashi span around, jumped back further into the forest, and begun forming more hand seals. Zabuza now recovered and with weapon retrieved began to bear down on the copy ninja, bellowing a war cry at the top of his lungs. The mist was rushing in right behind him.

Kakashi finally reached the thirtieth hand seal and with only ten meters between him and his enemy a huge dragon of fire burst from his body and started to coil itself around the trees. The intervening forest between the two combatants instantly burst into flame. Soon the tract of forest was ablaze in a hellish inferno.

With the heat nipping at his back Kakashi fled, exhausted and chakra depleted.

Somebody had fucked up and he would find out who.


End file.
